Useful Pages

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

We librarians take patron privacy seriously. We do not
divulge borrowing history to anyone—including spouses or parents. Sometimes,
people think we can go back and see everything that they’ve ever taken out. We
can’t and don’t want to.

Unfortunately, we don’t exercise the same control over our
ebook collection, which passes through intermediaries such as Amazon, Overdrive
and Adobe. Several weeks ago, libraries became aware of a data “breach” by
Adobe Digital Editions—a provider of our ebook software. Borrowing information
was being sent to Adobe from individual computers unencrypted and easily
hacked.

The breach (or potential breach) applies to a fairly narrow
slice of ebook users—those using Adobe Digital Editions 4.0 on a computer.
Overdrive apps for mobile devices are apparently not allowing this breach of
privacy.

Since the issue became public, and the ensuing protest from
librarians around the country, Adobe has updated Digital Editions to encrypt
the data sent from your computer.

For the American Library Association’s statement on Adobe’s
fix, click here.

To read about the larger issue of libraries and third-party
digital vendors, see this article in Slate:

In 1217 England was facing her darkest hour, with foreign troops
pillaging the country and defeat close at hand. But, at the battle of Lincoln,
the seventy-year-old William Marshal led his men to a victory that would secure
the future of his nation.

After the accession of Elizabeth I in 1558, Protestant England was
beset by the hostile Catholic powers of Europe, including Spain. Popular
history dictates that the defeat of the Spanish Armada was a David versus
Goliath victory, snatched by plucky and outnumbered English forces. In this
tightly written and fascinating new history, Robert Hutchinson explodes this
myth recreating one of history's most famous episodes in an entirely new way.

Edward Klein delves into the rocky relationship between the Obamas and
the Clintons. An old-school reporter with incredible insider contacts, Klein
reveals just how deep the rivalry between the Obamas and the Clintons runs,
with details on closed-door meetings buttressed by hundreds of interviews.

The Romanov Sisters sets out to capture the joy as well as
the insecurities of those young lives against the backdrop of the dying days of
late Imperial Russia. Helen Rappaport aims to present a new and challenging
take on the story, drawing extensively on previously unseen or unpublished
letters, diaries and archival sources, as well as private collections. It is a
book that will surprise people, even aficionados.

A few days into her stop in Paris, Janice meets Christophe,
the cute butcher down the street-who doesn't speak English. Through a
combination of sign language and franglais, they embark on a whirlwind Paris
romance. She soon realizes that she can never return to the world of
twelve-hour workdays and greasy corporate lingo. But her dwindling savings
force her to find a way to fund her dreams again.

A dramatic account of the historic 1986 Reagan-Gorbachev
summit in Iceland by Ken Adelman who was Reagan's arms control director. The
meeting led to negotiations and concessions that neither side had predicted and
laid the groundwork for the most sweeping arms accord in history. From his
position as a participant in these historic events, Ken Adelman is able to
reveal the motivations, relationships, and conversations that led to the
summit's breakthroughs.

Military historian Gordon Corrigan's gripping narrative of
Hundred Years War fought between 1337 and 1453.
Corrigan reveals the horrors of battle and the machinations of power
bringing these events refreshingly alive, and giving the great battles and
personalities of the period - Edward III, The Black Prince, Henry V, and Joan
of Arc among them, the full attention and reassessment they deserve.

Carlotta Gall has reported from Afghanistan and Pakistan for
almost the entire duration of the American invasion and occupation. Gall
combines searing personal accounts of battles and betrayals with moving
portraits of the ordinary Afghanis. Her firsthand accounts of Taliban warlords,
Pakistani intelligence thugs, American generals, Afghani politicians, and the
many innocents who were caught up in this long war are riveting. Her evidence
that Pakistan fueled the Taliban and protected Osama bin Laden is revelatory.

Established in 1898 in the heart of Paris, the Hôtel Ritz instantly
became an icon of the city frequented by film stars and celebrity writers. By
the 1920s the bar became a favorite for F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest
Hemingway. Mazzeo chronicles life at the Ritz during the Nazi occupation, when
the hotel served as headquarters to the highest-ranking German officers, including
Göring, and home to wealthy patrons (and to the spies among them) who stayed on
in Paris. A hotbed of illicit affairs and deadly intrigue is revealed, as well
as stunning acts of defiance and treachery.

The Holocaust has long seemed incomprehensible, a monumental
crime that beggars our powers of description and explanation. Masterfully synthesizing
the myriad causes that led Germany to disaster, McMillan shows why thousands of
Germans carried out the genocide while millions watched, with cold
indifference, as it enveloped their homeland. Persuasive and compelling, How
Could This Happen explains how a perfect storm of bleak circumstances,
malevolent ideas, and damaged personalities unleashed history's most terrifying
atrocity.

Friday, October 10, 2014

Did you know that you may search and view full-text
newspaper articles from the 18th century to today with your library
card?

The library has resources that may
be accessed whenever and wherever you
want and include these newspapers:

New York Times

Boston Globe

LA Times

Washington Post and many more.

Simply click on Databases A-Z on the WFL website under the Research
tab.The resources for the newspapers
are Boston
Globe, General OneFile,Historical Newspapers, and New York Times.

Whether it is for school or genealogical research or just
because you are interested, try them out to see what is waiting just for you
with your WFL library card.Find out
more on October
21st 10-12 in Jackie’s Room.